


the green ones

by theye



Series: echo chamber [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Don't copy to another site, F/F, Implied Relationships, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 01:32:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19346842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theye/pseuds/theye
Summary: “Lieutenant-Commander Williams has a point, Shepard.”  EDI says, velvet-voiced; she either doesn’t see or chooses not to care when Shepard turns her head to look at her; even her own damn ship is ganging up on her these days.





	the green ones

“We need to talk about this.” Ashley hisses, nimble fingers reloading her pistol with an ease and precision she’d only had in part before Ilos; Shepard has to look away and focus on the shaking floor beneath them, the Alliance laying siege to the Cerberus space station around them. Those hands. Sometimes they're Shepard’s downfall. “You _died_.”

“I’m aware,” Naomi replies, deadpan, ignoring EDI in the background, her eyelashes fluttering in a way that Shepard was coming to understand meant she was curious, and researching somewhere in the back of her processing power to understand.

“Do you remember anything?” There isn’t a long enough pause in Ashley’s breath for Shepard to really think the interrogation was over; so Shepard says nothing and waits. “I mean... anything? Before? After?”

Shepard thinks about Miranda’s lovely face above her own, hair dripping over her shoulders, a gloved hand gentle on the crown of Shepard’s head even while she barked orders. She thinks about her body twisting and convulsing in space, the terrifying cold, the burning squeeze in her lungs, the Normandy breaking apart in silence, her breath coming in hard, fast panting, and then she can’t _make_ herself breathe— “Is now really the time to talk about all of this? We’re in the middle of infiltrating an enemy compound."

“Shepard. We shot a _whole ship_ through the station. I think they know we’re here.”

“Lieutenant-Commander Williams has a point, Shepard.”  EDI says, velvet-voiced; she either doesn’t see or chooses not to care when Shepard turns her head to look at her; even her own damn _ship_ is ganging up on her these days.

“—we can talk _later,_ Ash.” She’d spent half the last month and a half praying for Ashley’s familiar irreverence to return. It’s back now, and she’s not sure it’s doing her any favors. She misses the nickname. She misses the playfulness. She misses the way Ashley used to look at her. 

“No, now’s a good a time as any. We both know once we’re back on the Normandy, you'll just end up distracting yourself in the battery or Dr. T'soni's office, avoiding me so you don't have to say a word of it."

“This _is_ an established pattern of behavior, Shepard.” EDI adds, helpfully. Shepard glares at her underneath her helmet, but EDI isn’t looking, and doesn’t seem to care. She’s listening, though, her new body angled just _slightly_ back towards Shepard while she works on the door. It's an odd attempt at human body language and Shepard half expects that it's on purpose this time.

“ _EDI_.” Naomi says, putting _effort_ into the betrayal on her voice. Ashley snorts and EDI says nothing. 

She’s not sure what she can put into words. She’s not sure what would satisfy Ashley. They’d been dancing around each other for weeks, now, with Shepard’s hands shaking while she held her pistol up, aimed steadily at Ashley’s knee, staring down its barrel at Ashley mirroring her and aiming at her head. Ashley’d cornered her in the starboard lounge twice, too close to call it coincidence, too far to really kiss her—

And then they’d tried to put it behind them, but interrupted with the desk and then the smooth glass wall of the aquarium and then the bed in that order, with Ashley’s warm, warm body asleep on her arm and cutting off circulation, and the smell of her hair in Shepard’s pillows again.

She remembers that moment lifting off of Earth, when they pulled away and Joker took them up slow and steady while the cargo hold door closed – she remembers her hand extended behind her, and Ashley squeezing her fingers so slow and gentle and familiar, like she used to after Kaidan died. After Shepard let him die. _It’s okay,_ Ashley had been trying to tell her.  _It'll be okay._

Shepard takes a deep breath.

“I _promise._ ” Shepard says, without thinking, turning to look at Ashley behind her visor. Ashley’s long sigh is deafening from the mic inside her helmet. Shepard’s never going to get used to how _still_ EDI is beside her. Her body doesn’t shift its weight, or breathe, or move while she hacks. Ashley’s shoulders tense and fall and her fingers tighten on the pistol’s stock. Naomi fights to keep her breathing even.

“Yeah, okay.” Ashley says. She exhales again. Shepard remembers that first time they’d kissed, Ashley sighing into her mouth, tasting like those vintage earth snacks, Jolly Ranchers, she remembers asking James to sneak her a pack and picking out all of the green ones while he watched –

“Okay.” Shepard echoes.

EDI’s cool calm voice is misty over comms and surprisingly clear all at once, “Door is open, Shepard.”

**Author's Note:**

> this is just part one of a mini-fic dump of all of my self-indulgent bioware scribbles i've never posted before/ edited for grammar


End file.
